Blog Archive - Todd Olinsky-Paul
The Lesson of Texas – And a New Program States Can Use to Quickly Fund the Distributed Energy Storage Solution
If we learn anything from the Texas blackouts, and the death and suffering that have resulted, it should be this: distributed resilient solar+storage systems are no longer a luxury – they are an essential tool to protect citizens from power outages, and modernize the grid so outages become less frequent and severe. The thing is,…
Massachusetts and Vermont crack the code on distributed energy storage
In 2019, Massachusetts commenced a nation-leading experiment by, for the first time, incorporating behind-the-meter energy storage into the Commonwealth’s three-year energy efficiency plan, through the ConnectedSolutions program, as a peak demand reducing measure. The state argued that this represented a new type of efficiency. Batteries do not generally reduce net consumption of electricity – the…
ConnectedSolutions First Results: Massachusetts’ groundbreaking efficiency program for customer batteries receives its first report card
Last year, with technical support from Clean Energy Group (CEG), Massachusetts became the first state to officially incorporate behind-the-meter battery storage into its energy efficiency plan, and utilities began enrolling customers across the state in a groundbreaking pay-for-performance program. Now, preliminary results from this program, called ConnectedSolutions, have been published in a report from Navigant…
DC Court Upholds Major FERC Storage Order, Should Lead to Massive New Battery Markets Across Country
This morning, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit upheld a major federal rule (FERC Order 841) that should lead to significantly expanded battery storage use in wholesale markets across America. In a hotly contested case, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit unanimously ruled that FERC has the authority to require states…
The New England Battery Revolution: In a Public Health Crisis, State Efficiency Programs Are Making Resilient Power Affordable for All
In this time of the coronavirus, losing electricity has more far reaching consequences than ever before. To those at home with children, a power outage could mean no distance learning; to those with home-based medical equipment, it could mean illness or worse; to those now working remotely, it could mean inability to run a business,…
FERC Upholds Order Opening Markets to Energy Storage
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted this week to uphold its landmark Order 841, which states that the nation’s electric grid operators (RTOs and ISOs) must allow energy storage resources fair and equal access to provide services in regional wholesale energy markets. The order is anticipated to provide important new market opportunities to energy…
Energy Storage Is the New Efficiency
When Massachusetts took the nation-leading step of integrating energy storage into its energy efficiency plan this year, it didn’t just add a new technology. It consummated a decade-long, slow-motion embrace of an important new form of efficiency. Up until now, efficiency in the electricity sector has meant using fewer electrons. This is a good and…
Massachusetts becomes first in the nation to make battery storage eligible for energy efficiency incentives
Energy storage has been the coming thing for years. Now, it’s arrived – as an efficiency measure. At the end of January, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) approved the state’s new three-year energy efficiency plan. For the first time, and with analytical support from CEG, it includes behind-the-meter battery storage. There’s a lot…
Advancing Energy Storage Technologies to Meet Clean Energy Goals in Massachusetts
Massachusetts’ Advancing Commonwealth Energy Storage (ACES) grant program was created to jump-start the energy storage industry by piloting innovative, broadly-replicable demonstration projects with multiple value streams, thereby priming Massachusetts for increased commercialization and deployment.
How One Small US Town Will Save Millions with a Microgrid
Sterling, Massachusetts is demoing grid 2.0 with a multi-million-dollar investment that will pay for itself in just two years.